Typhoon Goni slams into Japanese mainland

Update:
August, 25/2015 - 10:55

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TOKYO (VNS) — Typhoon Goni slammed into the Japanese mainland today, leaving 13 people with minor injuries and disrupting railand flight services, as the government issued an evacuation advisory for morethan 100,000 residents.

The powerful storm, which killed at least 26 people in landslides andfloods in the Philippines, hit south-western Kumamoto prefecture at about 6:00am (2100 GMT Monday), Japan's weather agency said.

Most of those injured sustained minor cuts from broken glass, a prefecturalofficial said.

Packing gusts up to 198 kilometres (123 miles) per hour, Goni was movingjust north of Kyushu, one of Japan's four main islands, the JapanMeteorological Agency reported, as it warned residents to expect violent winds,floods and high waves.

Local governments in northern Kyushu and other prefectures on the mainisland of Honshu issued evacuation advisories for more than 100,000 people,public broadcaster NHK reported.

Most regional railway operators halted operations, while scores of flightsarriving and departing from local airports were also cancelled, includinginternational services between major city Fukuoka and other regional centresincluding Seoul and Shanghai.

At 10:00 am local time (0100 GMT), about 425,000 households in Kyushu wereleft without electricity after blackouts, said a spokeswoman for KyushuElectric.

At the weekend, Goni hit parts of the northern Philippines hard, destroyingnearly 1,000 houses and forcing more than 12,000 people to flee, the country'scivil defence office said.

More than a dozen people in the mountainous region were killed bylandslides, surging waters and a falling tree. — AFP